Marquez and Rossi on Moto2™ and Moto3™ title battles

Ahead of this weekend’s action at Sepang, where Tito Rabat and Alex Marquez have chances to win the World Championship in Moto2™ and Moto3™ respectively, Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi have given their views on how the title candidates can handle the pressure.

Rabat has a 41-point advantage in the Moto2 title fight with his Marc VDS Racing Team colleague Mika Kallio, whilst Alex Marquez approaches the penultimate round in Malaysia with a 20-point lead over rival Jack Miller in the lightweight class.

Rossi said of their titles hopes, “I think they are in two different situations, because Tito has a very good advantage. So my advice is to do exactly the same like any other weekend and try the maximum from the practice, to fix the setting in order to be competitive on Sunday. Then try to give the maximum and win the race.”

“For Alex it is more difficult because he has less advantage but it is still a good advantage. So he can calculate. In Moto3 always, especially in the last races, the battle is always very hard, with a lot of riders in the first group. So he has to try to stay out of problems, try to stay in front and try to gain some points on Jack.”

MotoGP™ World Champion Marquez said of his brother’s chances, “In Moto3 the advice is that you must always do the same. It’s easy to say, but you must push like in every race. Because the problem is that if you try to relax or you try to calculate, you can finish fifth, sixth or seventh, as there are always six riders fighting for the victory. You need to be aggressive and you need to push. The perfect thing would be for him to finish in front of Miller, but if Miller finishes in front of him it’s not the end of the world. The advantage that he has is that Miller, in this case, cannot make any mistake. The pressure is on Miller to finish in front or to win the race if he wants to win the championship.”

Marquez also said of Rabat, “He is Mr Consistent! He is incredible. In the practice he is always doing like 25 laps and I always say to him you will be tired on Sunday for the race! But it’s his style and with that style he is doing really well.”